At least six Seafords exist in the world: Seaford, on the south coast of England; Seaford, Delaware, and Seaford, Virginia; Seaford, Long Island, New York; Seaford, Victoria, Australia, and Seaford, South Australia, Australia.
When using a search engine, please be aware of the six locations.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Sandy and Seaford creeks

Hurricane Sandy pummeled the south shore of Long Island with wind, tide, and rain. Damage extended across the island and hurt many people in their lives, with deaths and damaged homes. In this post, I choose to look at a more limited topic, how the three north-south creeks in Seaford rose with the run-off, tide, and wind. I wish I had more facts to present, but I did not go out exploring during the storm. This narrative will probably contain errors. I appreciate corrections and further explanations.----Cedar Creek flows between Fir and Larch Streets. I am quite certain it forms the western limit of the Seaford School District. It emerges south of Merrick Road in Cedar Creek Park and flows into East Bay. The dip in Merrick Road is quite obvious here, and on Tuesday it seemed to have pooled atop Merrick Road. Some residual debris was noticeable on Merrick Road near Willow Street, but I don't know whether it came from Cedar Creek's backup or some other source.----It seems that a section of Seamans Creek was channeled by the construction of NY 135, as a 1903 map shows it beginning at a pond north of DeMott Avenue, almost at the water company property. Seaman's Creek runs along the west side of NY 134, under the railroad and Sunrise Highway, reappearing northwest of Brook Lane's cul-de-sac. The creek goes under Alan Path, lingers west and north of Natalie Boulevard (where the 1903 map shows a larger pond), and passes under Woodward Avenue. Some hours before the storm, the water had already risen to the height of adjacent lawns. Overnight and later, I am told it closed Waverly Avenue. As far as I can determine, this closure on Waverly Avenue, just east of the NY 135 bridge, was the northernmost flooded road in Seaford, about 5.2 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. That is, the wind-driven high tide had caused the level of Seamans Creek to cover Waverly Avenue there.----Seaford Creek, the longest of Seaford's creeks, forms the border between the Town of Hempstead and that of Oyster Bay, a border which dates back to the mid-1600's and the era of Tackapausha. It seems to form about Jerusalem Avenue and the north end of Tackapausha Preserve, flowing through the preserve to the lake at Merrick Road and then with waterside homes south of Merrick Road. Early Monday afternoon, it overflowed two eastbound lanes of Merrick east of Townsend Court. As the "puddle" grew, police forbade traffic. I think I can safely say that the puddle increased from south to north, showing that this was the effect of tide, not yet a heavy run-off from the lake.----A friend pointed out that the height of a wind-driven tidal surge rises in narrow confines. That may explain why the canals of south Seaford rose to cover streets and to damage basements and ground floors of homes.